The Black Board Urban News & Media

[la2k16]

www.theblack-board.com

The site officially launched on 3/3......I had about a month of prelaunch where I let people try out the forum as I built the landing page and tinkered with the software

This is a Urban News And Media Website, featuring Current Event Updates, Podcasts, Web Reality Series, you name it.

I am very green to the world of web design but I have been posting at forums for years and was able to gain a little bit of a following through some podcasting I did which motivated me to break away from a site I was at and start my own.

Appreciate your thoughts

 

[tajhay]

Forum just looks like a plan vanilla xenforo installation. Why not style it to fit in with the overall look and colours of the site more? Stands out like a sore thumb.

 

[Lawrence]

Really like your landing page, and love your logo. I have to agree with @tajhay about the style of your forum. It doesn't look to be too difficult to make your forum reflect the style of your home page.

 

[la2k16]

Forum just looks like a plan vanilla xenforo installation. Why not style it to fit in with the overall look and colours of the site more? Stands out like a sore thumb.

Really like your landing page, and love your logo. I have to agree with @tajhay about the style of your forum. It doesn't look to be too difficult to make your forum reflect the style of your home page.

Honestly I am more familiar with the Web Design software I use than Xenforo at this time. I still haven't figured out how to do basic things like change the name of "likes" or have users post count and likes viewable under their username when they post. What would you recommend I can do to make the styles match up and how can I go about implementing it? As you can see all I did was change the color scheme

 

[MQK8]

Honestly I am more familiar with the Web Design software I use than Xenforo at this time. I still haven't figured out how to do basic things like change the name of "likes" or have users post count and likes viewable under their username when they post. What would you recommend I can do to make the styles match up and how can I go about implementing it? As you can see all I did was change the color scheme

I love your niche and play on words, lots of material to write about in todays climate. Seems you've done a good job on the hardest parts, changing the style is easy. Keep up the good work, again love the name of your forum.

 

[la2k16]

I love your niche and play on words, lots of material to write about in todays climate. Seems you've done a good job on the hardest parts, changing the style is easy. Keep up the good work, again love the name of your forum.

thank you so much for the support, friend! I had this planned out for a while and finally now was able to make it into a reality. I need to learn more about changing the default format of the forum so I can make it look more unique.

I quickly discovered this will become my unofficial second job. But thankfully I really am enjoying doing it right now

 

[Lawrence]

I still haven't figured out how to do basic things like change the name of "likes" or have users post count and likes viewable under their username when they post. What would you recommend I can do to make the styles match up and how can I go about implementing it?

What I recommend you do is to select the Create New Style Button, fill in the name you want to call it, and uncheck allow user selection (as an admin you will be able to select it from the front end), and play with it to learn it. You can always revert any changes you make.

To show a members like in the post bit: select the Style Properties of the style you are using -> Message Elements -> Settings -> and check Show author total received likes, and then hit save.

To change a name of a phrase, I wouldn't, only because when you update XF, the phrase would revert back. Instead I would create a new phrase, starting with bbun_ (for you can filter by that). For example: bbun_likes, and put in the word you want. Search Templates for:

{xen:phrase likes}

and within the resulting templates (2 of them) replace with:

{xen phrase bbun_likes}

During an XF update, the template merge option will not replace your new phrase, so you will be good to go,

If you need further help, just post in the Customizations and Styles forum here,

 

[la2k16]

What I recommend you do is to select the Create New Style Button, fill in the name you want to call it, and uncheck allow user selection (as an admin you will be able to select it from the front end), and play with it to learn it. You can always revert any changes you make.

To show a members like in the post bit: select the Style Properties of the style you are using -> Message Elements -> Settings -> and check Show author total received likes, and then hit save.

To change a name of a phrase, I wouldn't, only because when you update XF, the phrase would revert back. Instead I would create a new phrase, starting with bbun_ (for you can filter by that). For example: bbun_likes, and put in the word you want. Search Templates for:

{xen:phrase likes}

and within the resulting templates (2 of them) replace with:

{xen phrase bbun_likes}

During an XF update, the template merge option will not replace your new phrase, so you will be good to go,

If you need further help, just post in the Customizations and Styles forum here,

I searched templates for the "bbun_likes" and I cannot find it anywhere? can you give me a more specific directory where I should look. Thanks in advance. I am trying to change the name from "likes" to "salutes"

 

[Lawrence]

bbun_likes is the name of the new phrase you create to contain the word "salutes"
The "bbun" portion of the new phrase was used to keep the new phrase unique, it stands for Black Board Urban News (bbun_likes)

Create the new phrase, and then search the templates for (2 template will show in the search list):

{xen:phrase likes}

In each template that was listed, find this:

{xen:phrase likes}

and paste this over it:

{xen:phrase bbun_likes}

 

[MQK8]

Forum just looks like a plan vanilla xenforo installation. Why not style it to fit in with the overall look and colours of the site more? Stands out like a sore thumb.

I actually like the vintage default style you're using, just need to customize it, change the colors, the node icons, etc. JMO

 

[la2k16]

bbun_likes is the name of the new phrase you create to contain the word "salutes"
The "bbun" portion of the new phrase was used to keep the new phrase unique, it stands for Black Board Urban News (bbun_likes)

Create the new phrase, and then search the templates for (2 template will show in the search list):

{xen:phrase likes}

In each template that was listed, find this:

{xen:phrase likes}

and paste this over it:

{xen:phrase bbun_likes}

I'm failing at this...is there a more detailed explanation somewhere?

 

[Lawrence]

Led you astray, my bad. It's the phrase "likes_received", search for that and about 6 templates will be displayed.

Create a new phrase
titled bbun_likes_received
text: Salutes
then hit save to save it.

as an example, for the message_user_info template that will appear in the list:
find: likes_received, and replace it with: bbun_likes_received

 

[la2k16]

Led you astray, my bad. It's the phrase "likes_received", search for that and about 6 templates will be displayed.

Create a new phrase
titled bbun_likes_received
text: Salutes
then hit save to save it.

as an example, for the message_user_info template that will appear in the list:
find: likes_received, and replace it with: bbun_likes_received

For the life of me I just cannot get this right, when I follow the method above the only thing that changed was the likes received indicator on each person's username

 

[Lawrence]

Likes received indicator? Are you using a ratings add-on or something similar? If you are not, then install the add-on I attached here for you. It adds two new phrases: bbun_most_likes and bbun_likes_received, that are set to Most Salutes, and Salutes (you can change these to whatever you want).

It also completes 7 template modifications to replace the old likes phrases with the two new ones were appropriate, Be sure in style properties->message elements you have display total likes received for each style you are using to display Salutes on the poster info area.

I didn't change the like/unlike phrase as I didn't know what they should be changed to, or if you wanted them changed.

 

[la2k16]

Likes received indicator? Are you using a ratings add-on or something similar? If you are not, then install the add-on I attached here for you. It adds two new phrases: bbun_most_likes and bbun_likes_received, that are set to Most Salutes, and Salutes (you can change these to whatever you want).

It also completes 7 template modifications to replace the old likes phrases with the two new ones were appropriate, Be sure in style properties->message elements you have display total likes received for each style you are using to display Salutes on the poster info area.

I didn't change the like/unlike phrase as I didn't know what they should be changed to, or if you wanted them changed.

wow thanks man, thats going above and beyond the call of duty

Just installed, everything looks good. Going to tinker with it now and see if I can change the actual "likes" button to say "Salutes" so it will show as "5 users saluted this post" then it will be perfect

 

[la2k16]

Just here with a update, I purchased the style theme UI.X by Audentino design and @Mike Creuzer and I'm loving everything about it so far. I accidentally purchased the light version not even knowing there was a dark theme that matched my website, but I'm so happy I'm going to just buy the dark one in the future as well

http://www.theblack-board.com/forum/index.php

 

[iseamonet]

Hey I really love your Announcements/Notices block. How did you make it? Or was this Css that came with your style template?

 

[Sarah Worthylake Apel]

Looking good! UI.X is a personal favorite.

 

[IlPerazzi]

For whatever it is worth, the image gallery does not appear to render on all devices. Just a heads up. Cheers.

 

[la2k16]

Hey I really love your Announcements/Notices block. How did you make it? Or was this Css that came with your style template?

all of that was pre-formatted into the default style I use, UIX by audentino design. Thanks for the feedback!